Likelihood of tick bite to cause red meat allergy could be higher than previously thought

Feb 27, 2019

The original hypothesis was that humans developed the red meat allergy after being exposed to the alpha-gal protein through a tick that had fed previously on a small mammal. But new data suggests ticks can induce this immune response without requiring the mammal blood meal, which likely means the risk of each bite potentially leading to the allergy is higher than doctors had anticipated.